(Mark Adams)

D’Evelyn will have a host of new faces leading its athletic teams in 2015-16.

On Monday night, Jaguars athletic director Jerry McWhorter announced that the school has hired four new head coaches, including Dan Zinn as boys basketball coach.

Zinn was the head coach at Colorado Academy for nine years, spanning the 2005-06 season through 2012-13. His teams were 92-94 during his time as coach.

Zinn will replace Troy Pachner at D’Evelyn. Pachner, the coach for 17 seasons, took the head job at Valor Christian this offseason.

D’Evelyn reached the Class 4A Great 8 last season, and will return four of its five leading scorers in 2015-16.

The Jaguars also hired Erik Bell as boys cross country and track coach. He is a current teacher and coach at D’Evelyn, and takes over for Micah Porter, who accepted a job as an advisor at the new Northfield High School earlier this month.

In addition, Paul Witherspoon has been hired as the school’s boys golf coach. Witherspoon has been an assistant for the program in recent years, as well as an boys basketball assistant.

Finally, D’Evelyn has hired Megan Choun as its cheer coach. Choun is currently an elementary school teacher, and is a graduate of D’Evelyn.

The school is still looking for a girls golf coach, McWhorter said. Interested applicants should email him at jmcwhort@jeffco.k12.co.us to apply.

Connor Fox, a standout lacrosse player at Boulder, committed to Georgetown over the weekend.

His commitment was first reported by 3dRising.com, a lacrosse recruiting site.

Connor Fox of Boulder HS (CO)/@3dlacrosseCO '17, a slick, high-IQ lefty attackman w/ quickness & a great stick, commits to @HoyasMLacrosse.

— Casey Vock (@cvock) June 21, 2015

Fox, an attackman, scored 50 goals and had 36 assists for a team-high 86 points last season. He was a second team all-state selection in Class 5A.

Fox, who is 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds will be a junior this fall. He is the ninth known local boys lacrosse player from the Class of 2017 to commit to this point.

Denver South’s Terriek Roberts (54). (Pam Wagner)

Terriek Roberts, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound two-way lineman, committed to play football at Colorado on Sunday night.

Roberts, who will be a senior in the fall, picked the Buffs over eight other offers, according to his Rivals.com profile, including Colorado State, Wyoming, Arizona State, Kansas, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State and Northern Colorado.

He announced his choice on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Reik_Havoc54/status/612820485856890880

Roberts told BuffStampede.com, a Rivals affiliate which covers CU, that he takes “pride in where I am from, and I am tired of everybody talking down on Colorado football.”

“I felt like what better way to show people that Colorado football is actually more than what it is made out to be,” Roberts told BuffStampede.com “It would be special if I made my mark anywhere, but after talking with my coaches and family, I just felt like it would be more special if I did it in Colorado.”

Roberts had one sack last season on defense, and also helped Denver South rush for 3,272 yards on the offensive side. The Rebels went 8-3 last season.

At CU, he will rejoin former South standout Phillip Lindsay, a 2013 graduate.

Roberts is the third known local football recruit to commit so far the 2016 cycle. Legacy quarterback Matt Lynch is committed to UCLA, while Strasburg quarterback Mitchell Martin is headed to Sioux Falls, a Division II program in South Dakota.

In 2015, Colorado had commitments from four local players, including three linemen.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Nate Sweeney, a right-handed pitcher at Cherry Creek who will be a senior in the fall, committed to Arizona to play baseball on Saturday.

He announced his decision on Twitter:

I have officially committed to the University of Arizona! I would love to thank all my friends, family and coaches! pic.twitter.com/jDKxhXXKYj

— Nate (@nate_4748) June 20, 2015

The 6-foot-4, 185-pound Sweeney helped the Bruins reach the Final 8 last season, and did most of the damage with his bat. He hit .339 with a home run and nine RBIs.

On the mound, Sweeney made three appearances, including one start, last season, and finished with a 7.88 ERA. He struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings.

Sweeney’s profile on PrepBaseballReport.com lists his fastball at 87-89 and touching 90 mph.

Former Legend star Bobby Dalbec is now one of Arizona’s best players, but figures to be drafted and gone by the time Sweeney arrives on campus.

Arizona just hired former Nevada coach Jay Johnson to replace the retiring Andy Lopez, who led the Wildcats to the 2012 NCAA Championship.

Sweeney is the ninth known local baseball player to commit from the Class of 2016.

(Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)

Mullen announced the hiring of three new coaches on Friday. Alan Ball will be the school’s new volleyball coach, Devon Brady will take over ice hockey, and Frank Cawley will return as the girls basketball coach.

“Mullen High School is very excited to welcome Frank, Alan, and Devon to the Mullen family,” Mullen athletic director Vince Massey said in a statement. “We believe our program and our athletes will flourish and prosper under their leadership.”

Cawley was Mullen’s girls basketball coach over six seasons from 2005-11, and his teams were 113-44. The Mustangs won the 2006 Class 4A title under his guidance, and made three total Final 4 appearances.

Before heading Mullen’s girls team, he was the boys basketball assistant for five seasons.

Cawley takes over for Tyler Cline, who was 42-35 in three seasons. The Mustangs will return a large core of its team from last season, including seven of its eight leading scorers.

Ball, meanwhile, will take over the school’s volleyball program. He most recently has been the coach at KIPP Collegiate, a 3A team in Denver.

Ball’s teams were 17-26 in two seasons, but the Tigers made a remarkable turnaround in his second season. When he arrived in 2013. KIPP was riding a 21-match losing streak.

They were 2-18 that first season, but then went 15-8 last season in 2014.

Ball was an assistant at Mullen from 2007-12, and also has extensive experience in the club realm.

Brady will take over Mullen’s hockey program. He was an assistant for Denver East during the Angels’ highly-successful inaugural season in 2014-15.

Mullen went 4-14-0 a season ago.

Brady played college hockey at Hamline (Minn.), and then later the University of Arizona, a top-tier club program. He recently has been a coach for the under-10 program fro the Junior Pioneers.

As an assistant last season, he helped Denver East go 11-6-0 in its first season.

PUEBLO — Ryen Romero is back in the prep coaching ranks.

The former Dolores Huerta Preparatory High boys varsity basketball coach is taking over the same position at Pueblo Centennial.

Romero replaces Richard Falsetto. The Bulldogs finished with a 6-13 record a year ago and were 0-10 in the Class 4A South-Central League.

“I was waiting for the right opportunity to come up, and this came up, and it was the right choice for me,” Romero said. “I built DHPH up into something, so I know what it is like to build something from the bottom and build it up.”

Romero took control of the boys basketball program when DHPH opened its doors in 2005 in Pueblo, and was the Scorpions coach until 2011.

“What I’m aiming for (at Centennial) is to start little by little,” said Romero, 35. “I know there are kids who want to play because our numbers this summer have been really good. I keep up with the South-Central League and I know it is super tough. Pueblo West, Central and South are going to be loaded next year, and we just need to start trying to compete. I’m not expecting anything big right away. We just need to take baby steps.”

DHPH advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 2011, beating Grand Valley 70-52 in the 3A Round of 32 in the state tournament before losing to Bishop Machebeuf 76-62.

The Scorpions finished 20-4, setting a school record for most wins in a season.

Dolores Huerta actually competed in the Class 3A 32-team state tourney three years in a row from 2009-2011 with Romero at the helm. The Scorpions also won the Tri-Peaks East regular-season title in 2010-2011.

Romero works as a recreation therapist at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. He has three boys: Timothy, 12; Nicholas, 9; and Luke, 6.

Paula Krueger has resigned as the head girls basketball coach at ThunderRidge. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)

ThunderRidge girls basketball coach Paula Krueger has resigned to accept a job at Northern State University, Grizzlies athletic director Sean Patterson said on Thursday.

Krueger played at the Division II school in South Dakota, and was inducted into Northern State’s Hall of Fame in 2005. She has previously been a graduate assistant at Northern State from 1995-96.

Northern State advertised an opening for a full-time assistant earlier this month.

Krueger joined ThunderRidge just two seasons ago, taking over for longtime coach Bill Bradley, who led the program from 2003-13. (Bradley recently accepted the head job at Monarch after two seasons in Tennessee.)

And she had a lot of success — Krueger’s teams were 42-10 in those two years, including 25-3 last season. The Grizzlies, a No. 1 seed, reached the Class 5A championship game in the winter, losing to Broomfield.

“(It’s a) big loss for us,” Patterson said on Thursday.

Krueger was the head coach at the Colorado School of Mines for nine seasons before coming to ThunderRidge.

While there, she led the Orediggers to the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2009-10, as well as their first RMAC championship (2008-09). She is the winningest coach in program history at 133-125.

ThunderRidge will begin a search for a replacement shortly, Patterson said.

The Grizzlies will return their two leading scorers next season in Taylor Rusk (14.0 points) and Jaz’myne Snipes (11.9), who will both be seniors. Rusk was a first-team all-state selection in 5A.

High-scoring Pueblo Central guard Mike Ranson committed to play basketball at Northern Colorado on Wednesday night.

Ranson, a 6-foot-2, 185-pounder who will be a senior in the fall, tweeted his decision:

Super excited to say that I've committed to the Univeristy of Northern Colorado! 🏀 #GoBears pic.twitter.com/kzwpVFSHkn

— Mike Ranson (@mikerans50) June 18, 2015

Ranson averaged 25.6 points per game last season, which led all scorers in the state regardless of class. That followed stellar sophomore (18.3 points) and freshman (15.0) seasons.

As a junior, Ranson scored more than 20 points in 21 of the 23 games he played in. His season high was 38 against Vista PEAK in December.

He helped Pueblo Central go 19-6 last season, and the Wildcats reached the Class 4A Sweet 16, where they lost to eventual state champion Air Academy.

Ranson will join UNC in the 2016-17 year, when fellow Colorado products Cameron Michael (Loveland) and Jon’te Dotson (Lincoln) will be seniors for the Bears.

A two-sport athlete, Ranson is also Pueblo Central’s quarterback. He threw for 1,291 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, and rushed for six more scores.

Ranson is among the early commits in loaded Class of 2016 boys basketball recruits. ThunderRidge’s Austin Mueller also committed on Wednesday, choosing Wyoming.

Mark Roberts will be the next softball coach at Ponderosa, athletic director Tim Ottmann announced on Wednesday night.

Roberts had been the baseball coach at Douglas County since the 2009 season, but retired this spring.

Mark Roberts, new softball coach at Ponderosa. (Courtesy of Ponderosa HS)

He has a long — and rich — softball history, which includes stints as the head coach at Douglas County (14 seasons), and in college at the Colorado School of Mines (eight seasons). (He was also Douglas County’s baseball coach from 1994-96, and spent three seasons as an assistant at the University of Denver, back when it had baseball.)

As the softball coach at Douglas County from 1991-2004, Roberts won six league titles and the 1994 Class 4A championship.

At Mines, Roberts took the program to its first-ever postseason appearance in 2002.

Over the past seven seasons as the baseball coach at Douglas County, Roberts’ teams went 74-62. That includes a 13-7 mark this spring in which the Huskies reached the district round but lost to eventual champion Rock Canyon.

“Coach Roberts is a legend among softball coaches in Colorado and across the country,” Ottmann said on Wednesday. “He is excited to take over the Mustangs’ softball program, and looks really good in Cardinal and Gold!”

Roberts replaces Tony Tabola at Ponderosa, who was the softball coach for nine seasons. Since 2009, the Mustangs are 97-36. The program has one state title, when Ponderosa won 5A in 1992. The Mustangs also went to the 5A championship game in 1996.

The Mustangs, who advanced to the Class 4A quarterfinals last season, lose first-team all-state pick Ally Power next season. They do return two studs in Peyton Matejka and Kendal Boyum, who will both be juniors.

Matejka hit .397 with three home runs and 10 RBIs last season, while Boyum hit .394 with one home run and a team-high 19 RBIs as a sophomore.

ThunderRidge’s Austin Mueller (14). (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Austin Mueller, a 6-foot-6 small forward at ThunderRidge, committed to Wyoming on Wednesday night.

He announced his decision on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/AustinMueller14/status/611346479878291456

Mueller, who will be a senior in the fall, helped the Grizzlies reach the Class 5A championship game last season, where they lost to Overland.

He told WyoSports.net that Wyoming “was the perfect mix of academics and athletics.”

“I knew what I was looking for in schools,” Mueller said, according to the site, “and Wyoming was the perfect fit for me.”

As a junior, he averaged 6.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. During the tournament, Mueller averaged 7.2 points and 5.2 rebounds.

Mueller will be the latest in a long line of Colorado products to join the Cowboys.

Last season, Wyoming featured four graduates of Colorado high schools: Boulder’s Riley Grabau, Chaparral’s Josh Adams, Widefield’s Alan Herndon and Ponderosa’s Jonathan Barnes.

All but Grabau (a senior) will return next season, and they’ll add Overland’s Austin Conway, a 2015 graduate who signed in November.

They’ll also add Hayden Dalton, a 2014 graduate of Chaparral who signed with the Cowboys last week from Central Wyoming College.

By the time Mueller arrives on campus, Herndon, Barnes, Conway and Dalton will all have eligibility remaining.

Mueller is part of a solid Class of 2016 boys basketball prospects, which includes Overland’s De’Ron Davis, a top national prospect, Colorado Academy’s Justin Bassey, a Harvard commit, as well as a host of others who will garner a lot of interest.

On Wednesday, Pueblo Central guard Mike Ranson, another of the studs in the 2016 class, committed to Northern Colorado.

Austin Mueller, left. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)